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Blame it on Old Man Winter (again). That's the strategy for retail giant Wal-Mart, which Thursday morning posted lower than expected first quarter profit and revenue and largely attributed the earnings miss to the brutal winter that saw many shoppers staying home to avoid the elements. As a result of the disappointing results, shares of Wal-Mart have slipped nearly 3% in early Thursday trading.

Wal-Mart reported $114.2 billion in first quarter fiscal 2015 revenue, a figure that falls under the $116.3 billion analyst consensus but marks an 0.8% uptick from the prior-year quarter. The superstore chain did note that it saw a $1.6 billion hit from foreign currency exchange fluctuations, and were it not for these fluctuations its revenue would have increased 2.1% to $115.7 billion.

Net income came in at $3.58 billion, down 5.1% from the year-ago quarter and resulting in earnings of $1.10 per share, down from the $1.14 per-share profit reported during the same time last year and 5 cents under what the Street was predicting. The retailer said that bad winter weather in the U.S. lowered earnings by 3 cents per share but that results were also affected by a higher than expected tax rate.

Wal-Mart's overall same store sales in the U.S declined 0.2% during the quarter, reflecting disappointing performances across all of Wal-Mart's various business divisions, including an 0.5% decline in Sam's Club same-store sales. Bill Simon, Walmart U.S. president and CEO, called the results for his division -- which declined 0.1% -- "in line with our relatively flat guidance." Average ticket size increased 1.3% during the quarter, the retailer said.

"Like other retailers in the United States, the unseasonably cold and disruptive weather negatively impacted U.S. sales and drove operating expenses higher than expected," Doug McMillon, president and CEO said in a statement Thursday morning. "Walmart's underlying business is solid, and I'm confident in our long-term strategies. We'll continue to invest in price and enhance our service to improve sales," he added, noting that the company is still focused on driving growth throughout the business and remains committed to the previously-announced Neighborhood Markets initiative, Wal-Mart's rollout of small format stores.

Continuing a trend from prior quarters, the smaller Neighborhood Market stores proved to be one of the brighter spots in the quarter's earnings results: the segment posted 5% growth in revenue, and US division president Simon noted that the segment's net sales have "nearly doubled versus two years ago" and that April marked the 46th consecutive month of positive comps for Neighborhood Markets.

One addition bright spot for the company was its e-commerce sales, which increased 27% during the quarter.

Looking ahead to the next quarter, Wal-Mart said it expects comparable store sales in the U.S. to be relatively flat; during the second quarter of its fiscal 2014 (during 2013's calendar year), comparable store sales declined 0.3%. With regard to the company's second quarter profit, Wal-Mart EVP and CFO Charles Holley said that the company expects earnings to fall somewhere between $1.15 and $1.25 per share compared to $1.24 per share last year. "Our guidance assumes incremental investments in e-commerce, headwinds from higher health care costs in the U.S. and increased investments in Sam's Club membership programs," Holley said.

Brian Sozzi, retail expert and chief equities strategist at Belus Capital Advisors, said in a note Thursday morning that this guidance is 13 cents per share lower than the Street consensus on the low end, and even on the high end is 3 cents under what analysts are calling for, and that this should be a red flag for investors. "That range expresses little confidence in the 'positive' start to the second quarter being anything more than an Easter related shopping anomaly," Sozzi said, noting that the results made him wonder what transpired for the rest of April and the first part of May.

Following the release of the earnings results, shares of Wal-Mart slipped nearly 3% in Thursday's pre-market trading session; year-to-date the stock is down 0.2%.

This post was updated to clarify the company's same-store sales results.